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Notes from Flip Saunders’ end of season press conference

By Drew Mahowald

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Today, Minnesota Timberwolves part-owner, president of basketball operations, and head coach Flip Saunders addressed the media for his final press conference of the 2014-2015 NBA season. Saunders addressed plenty of issues regarding the Timberwolves, including NBA Draft plans, things that need to be improved, and offseason plans for certain players. Since I wasn’t able to catch the press conference live, I found a few tweets from other media members that paraphrase some of Saunders’ thoughts.

The first thing I’ll mention is that Saunders told the media that he plans to remain the head coach of the Timberwolves until he feels the team needs to move in a different direction. So, basically, Saunders will be the head coach next season.

Saunders was very optimistic today regarding the NBA Draft this summer. He commented on how great this draft class is overall, and that he’ll be happy with whoever player they land with their top four selection.

Additionally, Saunders made it clear that he has no plans of keeping both of the team’s second round draft picks they currently own.

Saunders also commented on his desire to build this team mainly from the draft. This team is loaded with talented, young players that have been drafted very recently, so many of the pieces are already there for Saunders.

Saunders also made several comments regarding the weaknesses that blossomed on this team this season. As a fan who watched a lot of Timberwolves basketball this season, I can agree with his three main areas that need to be improved.

There’s no way around it, the Wolves were awful defensively and awful at perimeter shooting this year. Injuries have a lot to do with both of them, but both of these areas were pathetic this season. I’ve written previously on Saunders’ offensive system and his lack of three-point attempts in the offense and I’m hoping that changes heading into next season. Strength is also a big issue on this team, and it’s especially a problem on the interior. Besides Nikola Pekovic, who’s never healthy anyway, the Wolves don’t have any “bruiser” type players. Instead, the big men on the Wolves roster are mostly long and lanky with little strength. If these three areas could be addressed before next season, the Wolves will see a solid improvement over last season.

Saunders then addressed some questions regarding some offseason plans for some of the players. He said that Ricky Rubio will not be playing any summer ball this summer with his friends from Spain, which was expected. Anthony Bennett will be playing alongside Andrew Wiggins on Team Canada this summer, and Saunders added that this offseason will be huge for Bennett.

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Adreian Payne will be a member of the team’s summer league squad in Las Vegas. Saunders supposedly mentioned that he doesn’t know who the future power forward is for this team, but the names he mentioned were Bennett and Payne.

Wolves fans will cringe at the thought of deciding between Bennett and Payne as a future starting power forward. I know I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for a top two selection in the draft, guaranteeing either Karl Towns or Jahlil Okafor. Both of these draft prospects would be huge upgrades at the power forward position over Bennett or Payne.

I’ll leave you with a tweet that includes a link to the entire press conference from Saunders today. I attempted to cover some of the main points that Saunders addressed during his time addressing the media today.

Saunders seems pretty optimistic throughout the entire press conference about the future of this team, which is a good sign. There’s no doubt in my mind that Saunders has a plan for success for these young pups. Here’s to hoping that plan all falls into place.

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